Ashfield council leader says disputed cash was handed over

Robinson asked: “Did you fill out a form which was essentially a lie in order to deceive, in order to gain £7,500?”

The defendant replied: “Absolutely not.”

Zadrozny said the paperwork for funding applications was “terrible”, adding: “I wouldn’t be sitting in the dock if I filled it out much more clearly”.

The money was taken from the society’s account in three withdrawals in March and April 2018 and Zadrozny said it was all handed over to Brewer, who died of covid in 2020.

Zadrozny said he never doubted Brewer’s integrity and “goodness shone out of him”.

He added he never checked what the money had been spent on and simply “cracked on”.

Another charge relates to £1,200, which was allocated to a cinema club, which never held any events.

When the police started making inquiries about Zadrozny’s handling of council cash in 2021, it was found the cash in the club’s file in his house was not made up of the same notes as originally withdrawn in 2019.

Zadrozny rejected the suggestion from Robinson that he had replaced the money after being “caught with his hands in the cookie jar”, instead claiming he had swapped the original paper notes when they were being phased out for new polymer ones.

But the defendant agreed with Robinson’s suggestion that each of these cases “looked a mess” and “looked fishy”.

Zadrozny said: “With hindsight, it doesn’t look as transparent as it should.”

He added: “I’m not somebody who is careful with paperwork, I’m not careful with money, I have a bit of a cavalier attitude. It overwhelms me sometimes.

“And quite frankly, as bad as this might sound, this was small amounts of money when I was dealing with a council that was running with big, big things, particularly during covid.

“We were dealing with grants of millions of pounds, which we had to hand out quickly and my attention to detail has, granted, been very bad.”

Zadrozny also admitted he owed tax for income from various properties, but insisted this was down to his believing he only needed to pay tax on profit from these.

He described this belief as “very wrong”, but rejected the suggestion he was out to “fiddle the taxman” as he always declared his properties via the council.

The trial continues.